Anji is a particular favorite of mine, and is not written about much, so I was quite pleased to see this piece. I like the idea of "Anji the Ghost", just I like the idea that perhaps he will find himself mistaken about what he will look like when he "has been forgiven"-perhaps not a ghost, but something much more substantial, something with much more "meat" to his soul-even more than he had as a monk, more than after his trial by fire (literally), more than after his defeat by one such as Sano.

oh, this makes my heart ache for the beautiful, doomed Okita. i loved "the smoky flames as he burns the evidence"-the peek into his psyche this gives us: what impulses, what motivations would have led him to this? it's like a footprint in the mud at a crime scene: it tells the investigator the walker's height, weight, style of walking, path-so much that was intended to be hidden is brought to the light, in spite of the walker's earnest attempts.

really lovely.

Anonymous but very interested chapter 43 . 7/30/2006

You have a talent for these little 'ficlets'. They're very well-written. ) I enjoyed reading them all! Sometimes, they're unexpected, and sometimes, it's not hard to guess what's going on. But they're all still wonderful.

but this does sound like something she might come up with-she's much more playful at heart than the other characters, and i can just see her doing this, although the possible resulting scenarios send shivers down my spine.

i loved the repetition and the rhythm of the sentences, as well as your clever blending of the western sense of "fox" in this all-too-Japanese-ly "foxy" scene-you crafted what could have been just a cute moment into a True (in my humble view) Ficlet.